More than 300 bikes donated at Sheriff's annual giveaway
By Meagan McGone
mmcgone@hometownnewsol.com
BREVARD -- In 2006, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office Jail Complex established a program providing bicycles to individuals in need.
And throughout five years, the Sheriff's Bike Program has donated almost 5,000 bicycles to children and adults in Brevard County.
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office implemented the program to give inmates the chance to refurbish abandoned and unclaimed bicycles and give them to underprivileged children for Christmas, birthdays and other holidays throughout the year. The program expanded to include homeless veterans, who needed bikes as their primary source of transportation.
This year, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office held its seventh annual Christmas bike giveaway at the Sheriff's Inmate Work Farm in Cocoa. About 340 bicycles were donated to Brevard County Sharing Centers, the Brevard Achievement Center and National Homeless Veterans Support.
In 2012, more than 1,000 bikes were donated to various Brevard County charities as a result of the program.
"What made 2012 so special is that our friends from Walmart in Titusville, Cocoa, Merritt Island and Melbourne generously donated more than 300 bicycles to the program to make it our best year ever," said outgoing Sheriff Jack Parker in a press release. "Waste Management has also partnered with the Sheriff's Office and saves discarded bicycles that would otherwise be taken to the county landfill and gives them to the Sheriff's Office to be refurbished."
Bicycles can be donated by leaving them curbside on regular garbage collection days or by dropping them off at the Brevard County Sheriff's Work Farm at 2955 Pluckbaum Road in Cocoa from 7 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., seven days a week.
For more information about receiving a refurbished bicycle, contact a local sharing center by calling (321) 269-6555 for North Brevard; (321) 631-0306 for Central Brevard; (321) 727-8581 for Melbourne; and (321) 676-2965 for Palm Bay.